Video: Final lighting refinements before the shoot

David: Dave, I want to actually have you stand here and look at this. If, if you look at this, you can see, you can see that I'm, I'm partially cutting off that light from the position where he's going to be. And, in fact, you should be able to see about half of that, if you're in his, his position. I want to make a tiny little sliber, sliver of light that's sort of discovering his face a little bit. So, just, come in, come in with your stuff and we'll see how close we are. Now, you should be able to see about half that light source that's tucked into the beam up past the.

Watch the Online Video Course Lighting with Flash: On Location, from Close Up to Portrait

1h 20mAppropriate for allMay 13, 2013

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In this installment of the Lighting with Flash series, photographer and Strobist publisher David Hobby visits a conservation center to photograph subjects small and large, demonstrating flash lighting techniques along the way. The course begins with a close-up shoot of a small frog—and with details on how to light close-ups and macros using a small softbox and a reflector made of crumpled aluminum foil. Next, David uses multiple strobes and umbrellas to transform a dark blacksmith shop into a warm backdrop for a portrait of a craftsman at work. In a bonus chapter, David discusses an approach for organizing photo meet-ups that have a purpose: leveraging the talents of multiple photographers to quickly create a set of photos for a worthy organization.

Final lighting refinements before the shoot

David: Dave, I want to actually have you stand here and look at this. If, if you look at this, you can see, you can see that I'm, I'm partially cutting off that light from the position where he's going to be. And, in fact, you should be able to see about half of that, if you're in his, his position. I want to make a tiny little sliber, sliver of light that's sort of discovering his face a little bit. So, just, come in, come in with your stuff and we'll see how close we are. Now, you should be able to see about half that light source that's tucked into the beam up past the.

Can you see that? Albin: Okay, I, I'm seeing a quarter to a third. David: Okay. Alright? That, I can adjust. Albin: 'Kay, that's close. Yeah, (INAUDIBLE). David: So, so basically his face can see some of the light source. And then the further away you wrap around his face on our camera right side, the less of that light source you can see. And you're, you're going completely deer-in-headlights on us here, but by the time we're actually making pictures I'm going to, I'm going to be working on that. (SOUND) I think too much fill. let's see.

Do you know how to change an SB8? You know, actually, I can do this way, I can do this way, feel/g. Just took a stop off of it. Okay, I'll see this'll hold all the way down. Camera springs back up. Okay. I'm going to give myself a little more power here because I've cut away some of this light, so I need to make up for it by making it more intense. So think about it. If I cut half of this light off from seeing his face, I've taken a stop out of this light.

So I just added that stop back in. I'm actually going to rotate that around a little bit. Is that beam blocking the light for you or can you see it? Albin: the corner. David: Ish. Yeah. That's okay. I, well, the one thing I don't want to do is throw a weird shadow in on you there. Albin: Okay, now that. David: That better? Albin: That, that covered more of it. I'm seeing the bottom quarter of the thing. David: Oh, oh, of the light? Oh, oh I see. I see. Tell me up, down, left or right. Albin: a little down. A little smidge more.

Okay now it's basically half of the. David: Got it. Got it. I could just come in really tight on you right there. Drop it down from, out of, from just out of frame. Let's see what happens here. I'm just going to forget that you're a human being for a couple minutes and treat you as a mannequin, I think, is the only way to. Albin: That's fine. David: But you're, well, you know, you've done a lot of modeling I'm sure at this point. So, most, I, I, I really don't like shooting models, I gotta say. We're going to be, we're going to be shooting a model later.

They're just, I don't know, combination of intimidating and not, it just doesn't seem real, sometimes. You should be able to see most of that light. Can you? Albin: everything except the very corner. David: Perfect. So now I'm going to come in and cut it. Albin: But now I can see a whole corner. David: Okay. So let's bring this up a little bit. Albin: I see three quarters. David: Okay, about that. Albin: Still not quite half. I mean. David: A little more than half right. That should do it, right about there. Albin: That's still more than half.

David: Okay, but should be keeping that from a. Albin: Okay. David: Falling on you. I really want to cut it from hitting your ear on this side. That's my, that's my main goal. And (SOUND). That's getting interesting. 'Kay, so this light is a little hot. But other than that, I think I'm good. There, well see, you can see more than half of it, so I'm, I'm giving myself one, two, three. If I have to, I'll adjust. Okay, if you could just, at me for a minute, turn, not your face towards me but chin down a little bit and eyes straight.

(SOUND) OK. Now I''m solving my reflections. Albin: OK. David: Where is that coming from? (LAUGH) I think I got a window over there maybe? Let's see if it's ambient light or regular light. Er, flash. (SOUND) It's flash. Well, this is going to be interesting. It, it looks square. Male Speaker 3: (INAUDIBLE) the LED. David: You think? Yes it is, yes it is, I bet. Can we lose that LED light over there, especially? Male Speaker 3: Yeah. Female Speaker 1: Yeah.

David: Okay. You can just turn it into the corner and it should be fine too. Maybe, maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Let's see. Just rotate the stand or, or. Male Speaker 3: Just pull the plug on the (INAUDIBLE). David: Yeah. Male Speaker 3: Try again. David: You know what I'm thinking? I, I think, I think I just talked myself into a profile here too, because I like, I like the beard, the glasses that completely work. The light is looking really nice here and I'm not getting, it was the LED light. (SOUND).

Well shot some both ways. We'll shoot some straight and then shoot some in profile. 'Cuz it's going to be a completely different picture. Okay. So let me remember to go back to raw. And we'll make some pictures. Quality. So I'm going to go up and, and test one very quickly. And then we'll get you, We'll get you into your hot steel face. Alright so, eyes, eyes on me. not face but split the difference and chin down a little bit. Now eyes right here. There you go (SOUND). We're just going to look. We're close, I'm still getting the light from some place else. I think it's this.

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